Academy “sponsors” donated more than �100,000 to Conservative Party this year

Academy “sponsors”, familiar to Education Uncovered readers, have featured again in the latest published list of donors to the Conservative Party.

Between them, Lord Ashcroft, the party’s former deputy chairman; a business linked to a Conservative-supporting family which controls an academy; and the former minister Lord Nash donated £115,000 to the party in the first quarter of 2021.

The figures were set out in a database published by the Electoral Commission.

Lord Ashcroft presides over Prospect Education (Technology) Trust Limited, which runs the single school Ashcroft Technology Academy – a former City Technology College which was set up in 1991 - in Wandsworth, South London. As “principal sponsor”, Ashcroft has the right to appoint more than the half of the trust’s directors, according to its latest accounts.

Lord Ashcroft donated £50,000 to the Conservatives during the January to March reporting period this year, through a single donation registered as having been accepted on 8^th February. He had given £76,000 to the party during 2020.